SSL Certificate: What It Is and Why Your Site Needs One

Amanda has been maintaining a blog and an online store since 2016. Recently, she has decided to get an SSL certificate for her sites.

A friend has told her that it would help her sites get better ranks on Google. It would also provide customer data security and other benefits. Amanda is not the only one.

Over the last five years, the interest of site owners in SSL certificates has been consistently high.

Our statement is based on Google trends data. As you can see above, people all over the globe have been looking up “SSL certificates” quite vigorously.

In this discussion, we would talk about SSL certificates in detail. So do stay with us.

So, what is this SSL certificate?

SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer. It is a security blanket. It secures the data path between your web server and a browser.

With it in place, hackers would not be able to steal sensitive data. Thus, people and search engines would find your website reliable.

If a website has an SSL certificate installed on its server, then its URL would have a “padlock” and “https” beside it.

The image below shows what we are talking about.

What are the benefits of an SSL certificate? Is it worth the money? Do you really need it?

Well, here are the reasons why you should have an SSL certificate for your website yesterday:

1. Your website would enjoy better ranking on search engines

A study by Brain Dean, founder of Backlinko, shows a positive relation between SSL certificates and search engine rankings.

The data above is based on 11.8 million Google search results. According to this data, almost all sites at the top of Google search results have SSL certificates.

Thus, your site is highly likely to have a better rank (provided it fulfills other conditions as well).

2. Your customers would find your site safer and trustworthy

Imagine having your official business name and country of location showing up in green beside your website. Just like in the image below.

Thanks to the SSL certificate, your site visitors would know that yours is a genuine business. They would thus feel comfortable putting in their sensitive data like credit card numbers, PINs, etc.

As a result, a more significant portion of your site visitors would convert into paid customers. Your revenue would soar!

3. You would enjoy a financial cushion in case of fraudulent transactions

SSL certificates come with a warranty of a certain amount of money.

Allow us to explain.

The use of stolen credit cards to make a purchase is rising. And in case of such transactions, banks usually reward the original owner in case of a chargeback claim.

But with an SSL certificate, that money doesn’t need to come from your pocket. If the transaction value is within the warranty limit of your certificate, then your SSL certificate provider would cover it.